Part 9

ROBERT MEIGHEN.

The history of Canada’s great industrial and commercial growth during the past thirty or forty years is but the history of such men as Robert Meighen one of the foremost business men of his generation, whose intense and intelligently directed activity constituted a potent force in the material development and progress of not only the city and province of his adoption but various other sections of the Dominion as well. His birth occurred at Dungiven, near Londonderry, Ireland, April 18, 1838, his parents being Robert and Mary (McLeghan) Meighen, whose family numbered five children. The family history shows a long line of Irish ancestors.

Robert Meighen was educated at Perth, Ontario, for following the father’s death the mother brought her family to the new world, settling at Perth, where her sons were educated and established themselves in business as retail and wholesale merchants. The firm of A. Meighen & Brothers has for many years been one of the most extensive mercantile firms doing business in the old Bathurst district. Robert Meighen carried on business in partnership with his brother at Perth, Ontario, until 1879, when he removed to Montreal and entered into business relations with his brother-in-law, Sir George Stephen, later Lord Mount Stephen, whom he succeeded as president of the New Brunswick Railway, which now forms part of the Canadian Pacific Railway system. Successful from the outset of his business career, Mr. Meighen continually extended his efforts into other fields. He became one of the founders of the Lake of the Woods Milling Company, establishing and operating mills and elevators at Keewatin and Portage la Prairie, which are among the largest and best equipped in the world. Shortly after the organization of this company Robert Meighen became its president, which position he retained till the time of his death, directing its policy and formulating the plans upon which the mammoth business was constructed. This represented, however, but one phase of his activity. He carried his efforts into many fields, none of them failing to profit by his cooperation.

“The Gazette,” at the time of Mr. Meighen’s death, said in part: “Mr. Meighen was a self-made man and was proud to designate himself as such. From the day he entered business pursuits at Perth, many years ago, down to the time he became a director of the Canadian Pacific Railway, an institution he had championed from its inception, in commerce, in finance and in imperial politics, Robert Meighen was never at home except on the firing line. Although the fact is only perhaps known to the newspaper fraternity and to some of the leaders of tariff reform in England, he advocated closer relations between the mother country and the outlying dependencies of the empire even before Mr. Chamberlain took the platform in England as the champion of such a policy.

“Mr. Meighen was known in eastern Ontario as a clever business man, a follower of Sir John A. Macdonald, and as a man who had ideas and could fearlessly express them on the stump and at the fireside, many years before he came to Montreal. It was ere his removal to this city that he had secured, most successfully, the right of way for the Ontario & Quebec Railway, now the Montreal & Toronto section of the Canadian Pacific, and later on he was entrusted with the promotion of a bill which was of the utmost importance to that railway. Mr. Meighen was not a member of parliament, but he stated his case to the members outside and in the lobbies of the house with such forcefulness, such clarity of view and in so straightforward a manner that few could withstand his cogent arguments. It was a tribute to his power that Sir Richard Cartwright’s denunciation of him was quite as vehement as the thunderbolts which the chief antagonist of the great railway project used to launch against Sir John Macdonald, Sir Charles Tupper and the other parliamentary giants of the day.

“Mr. Meighen believed not only in the Canadian Pacific project itself, but also in the ultimate value of the great tracts of land lying for a thousand miles along to the north of where the line was being run away up to the Saskatchewan, and, if he died a rich man, it was due to abiding faith in the future of Canada’s western domain and in the ultimate development of the Dominion as a whole. It was in reply to a jocular observation from Mr. Choate, the then American ambassador at the court of St. James, who had asked Mr. Meighen when Canada was going to throw in her lot with the United States, that the Montreal imperialist declared that it was customary for the larger unit to absorb the smaller, and no doubt at her pleasure Canada would follow the established precedent.

“A good many shrewd Montreal merchants smiled when Mr. Meighen came from a small Ontario town to this city as the promoter of a great industry, but many months had not passed before they discovered that both in commerce and finance a rival worthy of their keenest steel had taken his place amongst them and ever after, when any important subject was up for discussion on the floors of the Board of Trade, the opinions of the man from Perth, uttered with characteristic Irish eloquence and wit, invariably commanded respect and attention. His fellow members did not always agree with him, but they were always ready to admit that he was sincere and that he spoke the truth as he felt it.

“Returning from England some years ago, when everything spelt unrest in industrial Britain, Mr. Meighen gave an interview to The Gazette which has perhaps been quoted more frequently by politicians on both continents, as well as by Canadian public men of all parties, than any other of his utterances. Mr. Meighen, who was always a great reader, declared that England at that time could only be compared to Athens when Diogenes, the Greek philosopher, went out with his lantern looking, as he said, for a man. He said, however, in the course of that interview, that the man would be found, and sure enough it was not long before Joseph Chamberlain was entering upon his whirlwind campaign in favor of imperial preference and the absolute unity of the British empire. Mr. Meighen was denounced more than once at the Montreal Board of Trade, but a good many of the men who came to scoff remained to pray, to use Mr. Meighen’s own graphic language. Three years ago, when a resolution was to be introduced before the Montreal Board of Trade on the policy of imperial preferential trade, Mr. Meighen was particularly anxious that it should be fathered by a leader in commerce and finance. He prepared the resolution, called upon the late Sir George Drummond, president of the Bank of Montreal and universally admitted to be the first authority on matters of trade and finance in the Dominion, asking him to move it. Sir George Drummond’s answer was characteristic of the man. ‘Mr. Meighen,’ he replied, ‘this resolution meets my views exactly, but the honor of moving it belongs to you and you alone and I will take a second place. You will move the resolution and I will be only too happy to second it.’ Mr. Meighen delivered a masterly address on that occasion and the resolution was carried.

“His greatest energy was centered in the development of the company over which he presided up to the hour of his death, yet he stated not very long ago that he was shaping things in such a manner as would permit younger men to assume the responsibilities of management and that after the million-dollar bond issue had been retired he would then feel that he could take a rest.

“The late president of the Lake of the Woods Company was from the outset an uncompromising opponent of the Washington reciprocity pact and he did not hesitate to state on every offered occasion that the ratification of such a treaty would be a severe blow aimed at the unity of the empire, and a decided mistake in the widest interests.

“He was the confidential friend and associate in various business enterprises of both Lord Mount Stephen and Lord Strathcona. These eminent men had implicit confidence in Mr. Meighen’s business judgment, and as a matter of fact many other men high up in imperial statecraft came to him for advice on both Canadian and British trade matters. Indeed, some of the best speeches delivered on the unionist side during the last two British elections drew their information from, and were in part, inspired by the ideas of this foremost, perhaps, of Canadian tariff reformers.”

The same paper said editorially: “A worthy and widely respected citizen was lost to Montreal by the death yesterday morning of Mr. Robert Meighen. In business he won marked success. He helped in no small way to show the great possibilities of the milling trade of Canada and so profited the country as well as himself and his associates. He judiciously employed the wealth that came to him and greatly increased his store. The largest business enterprises sought his counsel on their directorates and profited by his connection with them. He was a man of ideas in matters outside of commerce, and held and advocated views about the country and the empire with vigor and courage and the broadest loyalty. In private life his sincerity, earnestness and kindliness caused all men to give him their regard. In his capacity as merchant, citizen and man he rose to high stature; and at a ripe old age closed a worthy career, leaving a memory that is a help to what is good and creditable in business life.”

Among his business connections, not already mentioned, Mr. Meighen was managing director of the Cornwall Manufacturing Company, a director of the Canada Northwest Land Company, the Bank of Toronto, the Dominion Transportation Company, the St. John Bridge & Railway Company, the Montreal Street Railway and the New Brunswick Land Company. His activities likewise extended to other fields having to do with many subjects of vital interest to city and country. He was a director of the Montreal Parks and Playground Association and was president of the New Brunswick Fish and Game Club. He was likewise vice president of the King Edward Memorial Committee of Montreal, was chairman of the Canadian board of the Phoenix Assurance Company and was a governor of the Royal Victoria, the Western and Maternity Hospitals of Montreal. The Montreal Standard named him as one of the twenty-three men at the basis of Canadian finance, and it was a recognized fact that few men were more familiar with the problems of finance or did more to establish a safe monetary system. Mr. Meighen belonged to various prominent social organizations, including the St. James Club, the Mount Royal Club, the Canada Club and the Montreal Club.

He was a Presbyterian, a member of St. Paul’s church and chairman of its board of trustees. All his life Mr. Meighen was a firm believer in the copartnership of capital and labor and in the coexisting duties, on a fair basis, of one to the other. He realized and carried out the idea of their inter-dependency. When labor had contributed to the success of capital he never allowed it go without recognition and its just reward, with the result of absolute confidence on the part of his employes in his fairness and regard for their interests, and a willingness to give, in turn, their loyal and honest support to capital. Above all Mr. Meighen had keen human sympathies. He delighted in the energetic young man cutting out his road to success, but this did not prevent him from having patience and sympathy with those who, perhaps through lack of natural gifts or unfortunate circumstances, found life an uphill pull. In astonishing numbers both kinds of men seemed to bring their successes and their failures to him, and to both, provided they showed honesty of purpose, he would give his time, his advice and his help in the open-hearted way characteristic of a man who had not a single ungenerous impulse in his nature.

At the time of his death when the press throughout Canada was giving appreciations of his ability and of his success one of his intimate friends remarked, “They have omitted the biggest thing about him--his heart”--and so it was. When these two, great heart and much ability, go hand in hand and work together, one vitalizing, as it were, the conceptions of the other, a potent force is felt to be abroad. Well is it for our Canadian business world to have had such a force in its midst as the late Robert Meighen truly was. He died when still, one might say, at the height of his activities and with a heavy burden of work upon him, but to work was his pleasure. His loss was deeply deplored by all who knew him and he left behind him a record of a man who in all things was the soul of honor and an example to those who come after--“Follow on.”

Mr. Meighen left a widow, Elsie Stephen, daughter of the late William Stephen, formerly of Dufftown, Scotland, and three children, Lieutenant Colonel F. S. Meighen, who has succeeded his father as president of the Lake of the Woods Milling Company, Mrs. R. Wilson Reford and Mrs. R. O. Harley.

WILLIAM ERNEST BOLTON.

Twenty years’ connection with the real-estate business has brought William Ernest Bolton into prominence and today he figures as a controlling factor in some of the leading real-estate companies of Montreal. He was born in this city April 11, 1873, a son of Richard and Elizabeth (Minchin) Bolton. His education was acquired in the schools of his native city, and early in his business career he became identified with real-estate activity in which connection he has remained for many years as a well known and successful real-estate broker. He has been identified with many important property transfers and with important development of real-estate interests. He is now a director of the Montreal Loan & Mortgage Company; president of the Birmingham-Montreal Realty Company, Limited; a director of the Midland Investment Company, Limited; of the Richelieu Realty Company, Limited; of the Renforth Realty Company, Limited, and of the Riviera Realty Company, Limited. These are among the most important corporations in that branch of business having to do with the property interests and consequent development and progress of the city.

In Plainfield, New Jersey, in 1905, Mr. Bolton was united in marriage to Miss Catherine Hamilton McClure and they have become the parents of two sons, Richard and Hamilton. Mr. Bolton votes with the conservative party but the honors and emoluments of public office have no attraction for him. When business leaves him leisure for social enjoyment he spends his time at the Montreal Club, the Beaconsfield Golf Club, the Winter Club, the Montreal Country Club and the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association, in all of which he holds membership.

THORNTON DAVIDSON.

Foremost among the younger generation of business men in Montreal and one who had attained a high standing in the financial circles of the city, was Thornton Davidson, whose untimely death in the sinking of the steamship Titanic, April 15, 1912, ended a career that had not only been successful, but gave great promise for the future.

Thornton Davidson was a native of Montreal, and was born on the 17th of May, 1880. His father was the Hon. C. Peers Davidson, D. C. L., a distinguished jurist, and his mother Alice Mattice, second daughter of William Mattice of Cornwall, Ontario. Reared in Montreal, Thornton Davidson attended the city schools, graduating from high school. Throughout his active business career he was connected with financial interests, later becoming manager of the Montreal branch of the New York house of Charles Head & Company.

In 1908 he established the firm of Thornton Davidson & Company which soon took a prominent position among the leading brokerage and investment security houses in the city. In 1909 Mr. Davidson became a member of the Montreal Stock Exchange. His thorough capability and great energy were factors in the success of the business which he established and of which he remained the head until his death. His personal popularity made him a valued member of the club life of the city, where he held membership in the St. James, Racquet, Montreal Hunt, Montreal Jockey, Montreal Polo, Royal St. Lawrence Yacht, Manitou and Canada Clubs, and also in Montreal Amateur Athletic Association.

On November 3, 1906, in Montreal, Mr. Davidson was married to Miss Orian Hays, daughter of Charles Melville Hays. Returning from Europe in company with his wife and the latter’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Charles M. Hays, on the ill-fated Titanic, Mr. Davidson was among those brave men who on April 15, 1912, gave precedence to women and children and went down with the ship. Such an act is just what his friends would have expected of Thornton Davidson in such an emergency. His associates knew him as a capable business man and a most genial companion, but they recognized in him also the strength of character which manifests itself in the highest type of manhood when a crisis arises.

WILLIAM FAWCETT HAMILTON, M. D.

Important professional connections indicate the high standing of Dr. William Fawcett Hamilton of Montreal, who, in addition to an extensive private practice has done much hospital work. He is a son of Gustavus W. and Eleanor (Goodwin) Hamilton, and was born in Baie Verte, New Brunswick. His early education was acquired in the schools of his native town and in Upper Sackville and then, having determined upon the practice of medicine as a life work, he entered McGill University of Montreal, from which he was graduated with the class of 1891, receiving the degrees of M. D. and C. M. He has now successfully practiced his profession in this city for more than two decades and has advanced steadily to a place of prominence as a representative of the medical profession. From 1891 until 1894 he was medical superintendent of the Montreal General Hospital and in the latter year became assistant physician of the Royal Victoria Hospital, and upon the death of Dr. James Stewart, in 1906, he was appointed attending physician of that institution. He has proven himself a man of ability and public opinion has accorded him rank with the eminent physicians of the city. He is now associate professor of clinical medicine at McGill University and as an instructor displays capability in imparting readily, clearly, concisely and forcibly to others the knowledge that he has acquired. In 1909 he was elected a member of the Board of Victorian Order of Nurses, and he is a member of the Association of American Physicians and vice president of the Montreal Medico-Chirurgical Society. Through these connections he keeps in close touch with the advanced work of the profession and has himself been a leader along the line of professional progress.

In June, 1897, Dr. Hamilton married Miss Janet Mills of Westmount, P. Q. Aside from his activity in the professional field Dr. Hamilton has done important public service as a director of the Young Men’s Christian Association and as senator of the Montreal Wesleyan Theological College. He is an active and helpful member of the Methodist church, and his social nature finds expression in his membership in the University Club and the Montreal Country Club.

HON. MICHEL MATHIEU.